Technology such as we find in the iPhone has brought us together in ways that many of us could have never realized 25 years ago. Last weekend, Nine Inch Nails rocker Trent Reznor proved just how effective such advances can be when he contacted a friend battling cancer using FaceTime on his iPhone 5s while on stage last weekend.

The friend in question was Andrew Youssef, a photojournalist who spent years documenting the lives of musicians like Reznor. As AppleInsider reports, some of his other subjects include Black Sabbath and the Cold War Kids. Youssef was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011, and he's spent part of the time since then writing a column called "Last Shot" for OC Weekly, which documents his struggles to maintain his dedication to his work while fighting the disease.

Youssef and Reznor became friends after Youssef wrote a column expressing that Reznor's lyrics and musics had relevance for his struggles with cancer after he attended the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco. Youssef had planned to attend Reznor's performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas on Saturday, but his doctor advised him not to attend.

So Reznor gave Youssef the next best thing. During the concert, he pulled out his iPhone 5s and called Youssef on FaceTime, allowing him to see the concert and the fans from Reznor's point of view in real time. Reznor also dedicated the song "In This Twilight" to Youssef.